VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — This weekend, runners and walkers will gather in Virginia Beach for LifeNet Health’s annual Race for Hope — an event raising thousands of dollars to support organ donation awareness, fund medical research, and provide care for donor families.
News 3 is sponsoring the Saturday event that includes one-mile and 5K races, but most importantly, its an opportunity for families of organ donors to honor and celebrate lost loved ones.
Among those sharing their story will be Vivian Hoover, whose daughter Brittany died suddenly three years ago at age 32. She'd suffered a cardiac arrest.
“She just lived life on her own terms. She loved cats, tattoos and she loved the Celtics," said Hoover. "She was an aunt, she was a sister, and a granddaughter and a niece and my daughter…and my hero.”
Hoover, who lives in Virginia Beach, said she learned her daughter was an organ donor shortly after she'd passed. It was decision she honored and one that has saved or enhanced numerous lives.
“Brittany donated four major organs,” Hoover said. “Her heart to Marla — who has two children — her kidney to Louis, who was newly married, another kidney to Alex, a 17-year-old, and a liver to someone anonymous," said Hoover. "It gave these people the gift of life and Brittany would be so proud she helped them in that way.”
LifeNet Health, headquartered in Virginia Beach, recovers donated organs and tissue for patients in need. It has a separate nonprofit called the LifeNet Health Foundation, which offers support to the grieving families of donors. Hoover says she was part of a 22-month support program that helped her navigate her grief when no one else understood her pain.
"LifeNet Health just makes it make sense," she told News 3.
The Race for Hope is a major fundraiser for the foundation, a route that starts at LifeNet Health’s Concert Drive campus in Landstown. Will Driscoll, the foundation’s Director of Community Outreach, said the goal is to raise at least $30,000.
“Eight organs can be donated to save lives. Tissue can be donated for any number of reasons,” Driscoll said, noting that more than 3,000 Virginians are currently on the transplant waitlist.
He says there is a lot of misinformation and myths that are often roadblocks in the decision to donate and in LifeNet Health's mission. A new awareness campaign just launched in August.
“We want people to have the information they need to make that critical decision at a very emotional time.”
Hoover hopes sharing her daughter’s legacy will inspire others to sign up as donors and talk to their loved ones about that choice.
“If you’ve signed up to be an organ donor, that you have that talk with your loved ones,” she said, adding that it's better to be prepared for questions and decisions that have to made quickly in the event of a person's death.
LifeNet Health Foundation also sends donor families to honor loved ones at national events like the Rose Bowl Parade — a grant Hoover’s family received in 2023. She says it’s one of many ways she felt Brittany continuing to cheer her on.
“She’s still my biggest cheerleader,” Hoover said. “She’s just cheering from somewhere else.”
The Race For Hope begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday, October 11. Click HERE for more information and to register.
